Day 6: The Hospital Visit

WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES/VIDEO FOLLOWING POST….

The night before we left on this Awareness Drive, my right leg was swollen by the calf so I went to the doctor. They gave me antibiotics and told me all should be good.

My leg was getting worse but we were on the road and have a very tight schedule to meet as many families as we can as well as doing multiple news interviews, so I was hoping it would turn around for the better.

We made it to MN to visit other Angel families on Wednesday evening. One of the mom’s is a nurse and the second she saw my leg and heard that I had a fever she stressed that I needed to go to the ER ASAP. Since she was so worried I thought I should listen and I headed off to the ER. Looks like she knew what she was talking about because they took me right back and seemed very worried about my leg and overall health. After checking my blood work; the doctor let me know my Kidney’s were failing and my white blood count was through the roof. She let me know that I had become septic, so she had to cut my leg open in hopes to help get it all drained and to clean it up. In addition, she let me know I”d have to be admitted for two days minimum and probably longer if they couldn’t get the infection under control.

I’ve been here for two days now and it seems like it’s been a month. Thankfully, I didn’t have to have surgery and they are releasing me, later today.

Part of me thought I would at least be able to rest here in the hospital but I was mistaken again. Every 45 minutes they’ve had to pull the packing out of my wound, clean it and add it back. Then they have to give me blood thinner shots in the stomach, draw blood from various parts of my body to check infection and then all the different specialist from Infectious disease, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Wound Care, etc. keep coming in.

The worst part of it all is that My wife and boy are alone and we had the travel trailer at a local RV park (Bunker Hills Campground) in Coon Rapids, MN. I called to extend a few days they said that the spot we were in was full but they had some down the road. I explained the situation and their response was “poor planning wasn’t their fault.” I again let them know that my wife didn’t know how to load the camper and couldn’t pull it to the other spot and again they just said too bad. If I didn’t have it moved they would have it towed.

I called a few RV stores, in the area, but none would let me pay to have them move it for us.

Thankfully my nephew lives about an hour away and he left work immediately to go get our travel trailer. He took my family to his house so that helped more than he will ever know.

Here are a few pictures to show the fun I have been having:

WARNING! SOME PICS VIDEO

https://youtu.be/fs4X4ERrWTs